Releasable latching assembly for door switches



Oct. 15, 1957 P. J. sERRoNE: 2,810,061

RELEASABLE LATOHINO ASSEMBLY FOR DOOR SWITCHES Filed OCL. l5, 1956 IN V EN TOR.

United States Patent 22,810,061 Patented Oct. 15, 1957 nice RELEASABLE' LATCHING ASSEMBLY FOR DOOR SWITCHES Peter JrSerrone, Kansas City, M0.

Application ctober 15,1956, Serial No. 615,798

lClaim. (Cl. 200-6L79) automobiles where they are installed in the jamb members of the automobile for operation upon opening and closing of the doors of the automobile. In such application, they are electrically included in a circuit normally associated with an interior light of the vehicle, so that such light will be automatically operated whenever a door of the vehicle is opened. It is often times desirable, however, that one or more doors of an automobile may be opened without the interior light of the vehicle remaining operated during the entire period that such door or doors are open. An example would be when the vehicle is parked andthe passengers desire that one or more of the doors be open for ventilation purposes, such as at a drive-in theatre. Obviously, in such situations it is desirable that some provision be made for conveniently preventing operation of the vehicles interior light.

It is further important, however, that the means provided for maintaining the vehicles interior light unoperated during periods of use of the vehicle in such situations shall also be adapted to automatically restore the system to its normal operating condition once the vehicle door or doors are closed after the termination of the period of temporary deactivation of thesystem. Where such restoration of the system to its normal operating condition other than automatically accomplished by mere closing of the door or doors, it will be clear that through oversight or inadvertance the operator of the vehicle might well neglect to restore the system to its normal operating condition after the period of special operation, with resulting inconvenience or danger to passengers.

Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to provide improved apparatus for solving the above mentioned problems.

It is another important object of the invention to provide such apparatus which is of nature permitting the improvement to be incorporated either into the switch itself by manufacture of same in form involving only inexpensive modifications from the conventional conguration for such switches or by means of an accessory attachment adapted to be used with existing, conventional switches after only slight alteration of the latter which may be accomplished without even removing the same from its normal mounting.

It is another important object of the invention to provide an improved switch of the subject class having a reciprocable actuating plunger formed with a notch therein adapted to receive a resilient leaf element when the 2 plunger is in its depressed condition for holding the latter in such condition.

It is another important object of the invention to provide such apparatus in which the leaf element is normally biased away from the plunger and notch thereof, so that the element will return to a position clearing the notch and plunger when the yVehicle door is closed to depress the plunger slightly and break the frictional contact between the element and plunger existing when the element is received within the notch of the latter.

It is another important object of the invention to provide such apparatus in which the leaf element may be attached to an existing, conventional switch as an accessory thereto and the actuating plunger of the switch modified by a simple tiling operation to present the overall improved structure.

Still other important objects of the invention will be made clear or become apparent as the following description of the improvements contemplated by the invention progresses.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. l is a side elevational view of one embodiment of improved switching structure as contemplated by the invention with parts broken away and shown in cross section for clarity of illustration and the electrical aspects of the system illustrated schematically, the switch being in its normal position completing the energizing circuit for the interior light of the vehicle;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational View of the switching apparatus per se when same is in its normal or unoperated condition;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view similar to Fig. l, except showing the switch in its operated position opening the energizing circuit for the interior light of the vehicle;

Fig. 4 is a front elevational view of the switch per se when same is in its operated condition; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary, elevational view of a portion of the actuating plunger of the switch showing the relationship of the leaf element t-o the notch of the plunger.

Referring now to the drawing, the improved switching mechanism of the invention is broadly designated by the numeral 10 and is seen to broadly include a mounting plate 12, a generally cylindrical, hollow housing 14 extending rearwardly frorn one side of the plate 12 and an actuating plunger 16 extending forwardly and outwardly from housing 14 through an opening 1S in mounting plate 12. Switching mechanism 1t) may be conventionally mounted upon a jamb member 20 of a vehicle or the like, the housing 14 of switch 10 extending through an opening 22 provided in jamb member 20. It will be understood that the vehicle also includes a swingable door (not shown) adapted to engage the plunger 16 for depressing the same when the door is closed.

The switching parts of the mechanism 10 may be of any conventional form adapted for operation by a depressible plunger such as that at 16, which is normally biased outwardly by la coil spring or the like 24 within the housing 14. For purposes of illustration, however, such switching parts are ldepicted in the drawing asincluding an electrically conductive arm 26 having a contact portion 28 adapted to engage and make electrical contact with a conductive Contact generally designated 5t) mounted on the plunger 16 within housing 14 for reciprocation therewith. An inner portion 32 of plunger 16 within the yhousing 14 is of larger diameter than the opening 18 in mounting plate 12 and is provided with a central, generally cylindrical cavity 34 therewithin. The contact 30 is mounted on the inner portion 32 of plunger 16 and includes a liat, rearwardly facing annular portion 36, a forwardly extending annular ange portion 38 at the innermost extremity of portion 36, and ya number of resilient wipers 40 at the outermost extremity of portion 36 adapted to slidingly engage the interior of housing 14. The spring 24 oppositely engages an electrically insulative rear wall 42 of housing 14, on which arm 26 is mounted in any suitable fashion, and the portion 36 of contact 30 to yieldably bias the plunger 16 toward the normal position illustrated in Fig. 1.

It will be understood that an electrical circuit for energizing an interior light 44 of the vehicle may be completed through the switching mechanism from the vehicle battery 46 which is mounted at one terminal thereof as at 48, through a conductor 50 connecting the other terminal of battery 46 with lamp 44, a conductor S2 connecting the opposite side of lamp 44 with the contact arm 26, and the grounding of contact 30 by the engagement of wipers 40 with housing 14, the latter being grounded through the physical connections between housing 14, mounting plate 12 and jamb member 20 (the grounding of the jamb member of the vehicle being schematically represented as at 54).

As will be clear from Figs. l and 3 the contact portion 28 of arm 26 engages the flange portion 38 of contact 30 only when the plunger 16 is in the normal position illustrated in Fig. l, since when plunger 16 is depressed as illustrated in Fig. 3, the plunger reciprooates to a position moving the contact away from engagement with portion 28 of arm 26 to break the above-mentioned electrical circuit.

lt will be understood that the vehicle door (not shown) does not normally come into actual engagement with the jamb member 20 when the door is closed, but rather merely approaches the same to an extent which, by engagement with the outermost extremity 56 of plunger 16, will depress the latter into the housing 14 a little Way beyond the position of plunger 16 illustrated in Fig. 3.

In the improvement contemplated by the invention, the plunger 16 is provided with a notch generally designated 53 extending from extremity 56 thereof rearwardly a predetermined distance. Such notch 58 is defined by a substantially flat or planar surface 60 extending from the front extremity 56 of plunger 16 toward the rear extremity thereof yand a substantially flat or planar transverse surface 62 extending at an angle inwardly and rearwardly to a zone of juncture with the surface 60, Ias best illustrated in Fig. 5. Such notch 58 may obviously be either formed in the plunger 16 when the same is initially manufactured or may be conveniently cut into a conventional plunger 16 by a simple tiling operation, it being observed that the plunger 16 is in either case preferably and conventionally formed of Bakelite or some similar plastic material.

There is further provided in the improved apparatus contemplated by the invention, a resilient, preferably metallic, elongated, leaf element 64 having an integral base portion 66 which may be secured to the mounting plate 12 of switching mechanism 10 in any suitable fashion. In the preferred embodiment, the base portion 66 is bifurcated to provide a slotted opening 68 between a pair of leg portions 70 and 72, the leg portions 70 and 72 being tightly held beneath a screw 74 received within slot 68 and conventionally provided in any event to mount the plate 12 upon the jamb 20. It will be seen that the leaf element 64 is in the nature of a normally planar, relatively thin strip whose plane extends forwardly at a right tangle from the base portion 66 and whose length is suicient to extend from the base portion 66 toa point beyond the plunger 16. By virtue of its resilient Y nature, the leaf strip or element 64 has a normal position 4 The normal 'position of the leaf element is shown in dotted lines in Fig. S.

When it is desired to latch the plunger 16 in a depressed condition opening the electrical Contact between arm 26 and flange 38, when the door of the vehicle is open and therefore ineffective to depress the plunger 16, the plunger 16 is manually depressed and the leaf element 64 simultaneously swung from its normal position to a displaced position in which same is received within the notch 58 of plunger 16 as shown in solid lines in Fig. 5 and also in Figs. 3 and 4. With the leaf element 64 received within notch 58, release of the manual depressing pressure on the plunger 16 will permit the sloped surface 62 of notch 58 to engage the corresponding edge of leaf element 64 to hold the latter Within the notch 58. Obviously, so long as leaf element 64 remains within notch 58, the plunger 16 will be maintained in a depressed condition opening the electrical circuit between arm 26 and flange 38 of contact 30.

Upon a closing of the corresponding door (not shown), it will be understood that the door engages the outer extremity 56 of plunger 16 to depress the same to a slightly greater degree than that amount of depression of the plunger 16 maintained by the leaf element 64. Upon such further depression of the plunger 16 by the door, which need be only sufficient to permit the edge of leaf element 64 to clear the surface 62 of notch 58, the element 64 will by virtue of its resilient nature automatically return to its normal position clearing the plunger 16 and notch 58 thereof. This, of course, restores the switching mechanism 10 to a condition of normal operation until it is next desired to utilize the latching action of the leaf element 64 by operably positioning the same within the notch 58 of plunger 16.

It will now be apparent that the structure disclosed is ideally adapted for accomplishing all of the abovementioned and other objectives of the invention. It will be equally manifest, however, that a number of minor changes or modifications could be made from the precise structure shown and described for purposes of illustration without departing from the true spirit and intention of the invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that the invention is to be deemed as limited only by the scope of the claim that follows.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

Releasable latching means particularly adapted for use in association with an electrical switching device having a face plate provided Wtih `a pair of perforations through one of which protrudes a portion of a depressible, spring loaded, switch operating plunger having a notch therein and through the other of which headed fastening means used for mounting the device may pass, said latching means wherein the improvement resides comprising: a unitary, resilient element having a notched base adapted for 'flat superimposition upon the plate and for underlying said fastening means to secure the element to the plate, and an elongated, strip-like, spring blade integrally interconnected adjacent one end thereof with the base along a right angle line of bend, said blade having a normal configuration for clearing the plunger when the latching means are mounted on the device by securement of the elementV to the plate but being adapted for manual distortion to a configuration for engaging the plunger within the notch thereof.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 780,860 Brusseau Ian. 24, 1905 2,592,660 Crumley Apr. '15, 1952 2,656,427 Fiorucci Oct. 20, 1953 2,680,168 Murphy lune l, 1954 

